The Share Trading thread

[Rayvin 5223]

 

 

Their 52 week high is about 30% greater than their 52 week low, and they are somewhere in the middle of that range at the moment.

 

I wouldn't call the publishing/education industry a safe bet... ITK alert

 

I bought in a couple of years ago but you're right, they've struggled recently. They released a profit warning in Feb due to poor performance in their US market. But their yield in dividends (the reason I'm in) is consistently higher than I've been able to find on an interest rate elsewhere. Admittedly, I'm uncertain about how that will look this year.

As for the industry - as I said, it has a low market beta, which means the 'experts' consider it to be low risk compared to the rest of the market. Also, I work in the industry It's an oligopoly, and the big players are moving with the time very quickly now - they should be fine.

 

Still, I'm not pretending to be hugely in the know - these were just observations.

Edited April 26, 2014 by Rayvin

[Rob W 0]

shouldn't invest in the industry you work in - firstly because you are doubling the risk if the industry goes down the tubes - job & savings at risk and secondly YOu think you know how the business works or should work whereas the crooks in the City are working to a completley different agenda - buy, sell, insider trade...................

[ChezGiven 0]

Michael Lewis's new book sounds excellent, been loads of reports on it. Basically exposing high frequency trading as a form of insider trading actually endorsed by the regulators.

[Gemmill 44888]

Is that Flash Boys or something like that? Sounds decent.

[adios 717]

it's very much just like gambling.

 

go on...

[ChezGiven 0]

Is that Flash Boys or something like that? Sounds decent.

 

That's the one, The Big Short was excellent too. Same guy who wrote Moneyball.

[Gemmill 44888]

Yeah I keep meaning to get round to Moneyball. Seen the film, but fancy the book too.

[Rayvin 5223]

shouldn't invest in the industry you work in - firstly because you are doubling the risk if the industry goes down the tubes - job & savings at risk and secondly YOu think you know how the business works or should work whereas the crooks in the City are working to a completley different agenda - buy, sell, insider trade...................

 

That sounds profoundly sensible. Saying that, I'm in now. I wanted something familiar to kick it off with, and I thought I might see the bad news coming if I'm close to it. I totally get what you're saying though.

[TobamorisRevenge 0]

I bought about £200 worth of shares in Pearson Education (low risk - the market Beta is less than one). Chose them because I work in the same industry and they paid out fairly good dividends.

 

My observations are this:

 

1 - You can't make any real money through just a couple of hundred quid. Making any money at all, with any regularity, involves understanding the markets and industries that each company operates in. This is time consuming, and not worth it for the sort of money you'd make back on £200.

 

2 - You can choose to play the long game, and buy shares with a view to holding onto them and earning dividends as the company appreciates over time. This is what I'm doing, and it's like holding the money in a savings account. How well you do depends on the company performance, but Pearson last year paid out on around 4%.

 

3 - The people who do well have an algorithm that allows them to spread the risk while increasing their return. This requires a diverse portfolio, including very low risk assets like government bonds; it also means that you need to chose both high and low risk stocks, along with investments in companies that are opposed in terms of performance (i.e., the sorts of industries that benefit from the failure of each other, which protects you against one or the other failing).

 

Anyway, long story short - only worth it if you're prepared to risk thousands. But there's very little risk in just punting a couple of hundred and getting a sense for how the market works.

only way to trade small amounts is either to gamble, have inside info or try penny stocks.

 

YOu can do spread betting on commodities/currencies/or the indexes, but its dangerous and not worthit for the novice....will shred ur nerves and turn you grey!

 

http://www.halifax.co.uk/sharedealing/charges/

 

halifax offer a service where you can put a fixed amount into a share every week....like 20 quid a week, @2 quid a trade. * This can be useful for ironing out an average on a volatile share; like a penny stock. SOme penny stocks have big % movements. Thisis where you can make money, but you need to monitor them daily., and research the market. Plenty forums out there, most them fullof dodgy info !

 

NEVER stack all ur money on single share, have a portfolio, to spread the risk.

 

explore etf trading, can be better than shares for making money.

 

* only good if you expect a share to go up. shorting a share is tricky imo. Its counter intuitive. Much easier to short indexes or currencies.

Edited April 30, 2014 by TobamorisRevenge

[TobamorisRevenge 0]

death of the dollar, continues to gain pace.

 

http://www.dw.de/frankfurt-issues-first-bond-backed-by-chinese-currency/a-17605819

[TobamorisRevenge 0]

dollar collapse continues to gain pace:

 

http://intellihub.com/george-soros-sells-shares-citigroup-bank-america-jp-morgan/

[Meenzer 15531]

"There’s no sign that we are anywhere near a bottom."

 

:panic:

[Monkeys Fist 42456]

[Kevin Carr's Gloves 3894]

Funny thing is if you read his Wikipedia page he is against bubbles and stupid economic trends but if tgey happen despite his warnings he is not averse to making a couple of billion out of them.